It seems that Team Obama was none too pleased that veteran Chronicle political reporter Carla Marinucci posted a 40-second video of a group of supporters-turned-protesters serenading the president a cappella - "We paid our dues ... where's our change" - at a recent fundraising breakfast at San Francisco's St. Regis Hotel. The protesters' objection: the treatment of Wikileaks source Pfc. Bradley Manning.

The White House threatened that Marinucci would no longer be allowed to serve as a pool reporter during future Obama swings west. Marinucci's apparent offense was shooting video during an event that was closed to broadcast journalism...

...An administration truly dedicated to transparency would not require journalists to be "in the tank" as a condition of being in the pool.

The White House is denying that it threatened to exclude the San Francisco Chronicle from presidential events in its coverage area after one of its reporters recorded a video of singing protesters at a fundraiser last week that was restricted to print reporters...

...White House spokesman Josh Earnest told POLTICO on Friday that the Chronicle’s claims are “not true,” and that no such threat was ever made, but he wouldn’t provide further details...

In a pants-on-fire moment, the White House press office today denied anyone there had issued threats to remove Carla Marinucci and possibly other Hearst reporters from the press pool covering the President in the Bay Area.

Chronicle editor Ward Bushee called the press office on its fib:

Sadly, we expected the White House to respond in this manner based on our experiences yesterday. It is not a truthful response. It follows a day of off-the-record exchanges with key people in the White House communications office who told us they would remove our reporter, then threatened retaliation to Chronicle and Hearst reporters if we reported on the ban, and then recanted to say our reporter might not be removed after all.

The Chronicle's report is accurate.

If the White House has indeed decided not to ban our reporter, we would like an on-the-record notice that she will remain the San Francisco print pool reporter.

I was on some of those calls and can confirm Ward's statement... Messy ball now firmly in White House court.

I didn't hear a rimshot after a White House adviser described President Obama's foreign policy doctrine this way, so I assume it was serious.

Obama may be moving toward something resembling a doctrine. One of his advisers described the president’s actions in Libya as "leading from behind."

— Ryan Lizza, the New Yorker, May 2 issue

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann asks the candid question every American -- except you whack-job progressive drones -- should be asking.

Do you want to live in a country that is "leading from behind?"

...an Obama advisor describes the President's approach to foreign policy as "leading from behind," a "doctrine" that "comes from two unspoken beliefs: that the relative power of the U.S. is declining, as rivals like China rise, and that the U.S. is reviled in many parts of the world."

As a member of Congress and as an American, the notion that America is an exceptional place has given me a sense of optimism about our future that has guided me throughout my career and my life... To have a President who expresses the opposite, a pessimism about America's place in the world paired with an acceptance to let the world abuse us and pass us by, is unprecedented in the history of our nation...

...While the President tries to mask this with verbal gymnastics, the American people know that "leading from behind" is not leading at all--it is following and it is weak.

The America that we love is the giant that defeated the Soviet Union and liberated Europe, the inventor of the Internet and motorized transportation, and a great and giving people whose Navy accurately proclaims herself as "the global force for good." Whether we continue this legacy of greatness is not up to China, nor does it rely on the opinion of the international community. Our capacity to be great is far more personal, determined by the capacity for boldness possessed by each of us and by those who we trust to lead us--this is the core principle of the American spirit. Presidents from Roosevelt to Kennedy to Reagan did not just believe this notion, they shouted it from the mountaintops yet, contrastingly, for a President who made "Yes We Can" a household saying, this new "Obama doctrine" is better summarized by "No, We Can't." Americans know that we can do better.

The body count from two areas of mass graves in Mexico had grown to 279, the government announced. In Tamaulipas, forensics had pulled 183 bodies from the mass graves. In Durango state to the west, the government had found 96 bodies to date. Both states are disputed territories but little is known of the motives for the killings...

With weather officials sounding the all-clear Thursday afternoon, Greater New York emerged undamaged from the historic tornado outbreak that has afflicted nearly half the nation and rendered this month the most tornadically active April in U.S. history.

Funnel clouds made their closest brush with New York City since striking Brooklyn and Queens last September, with a trained weather spotter observing three in short succession near Wayne, N.J., at about 12:15 p.m. Thursday. At one point, six counties in the region were under a tornado warning.

Radar imagery at that time confirms a significant threat, with Doppler wind estimates in excess of 70 mph.

You need to get this out to the people. I became aware about OTMs [Other Than Mexicans] coming over the border.

I work for Homeland [Security] and in our prisons right now, we have, Iranians, Afghanis, Pakistanis, Yemenese, Syrians... and our Border Patrol has found... the drug cartels are going to smuggle terrorists and terrorist weapons across our porous borders... especially in Arizona [Ed: would that be the same Arizona that the Obama administration's Justice Department has sued for enforcing immigration law? Why, yes, it would be]...

...So, we need to secure the borders -- and I don't know why this administration has not done anything... previous administrations have not done anything... this is a major issue. We are going to be hit from within. It's not going to come from outside, it's going to come from within...

...The [American] people are in the dark. They don't know what's going on. We apprehended more than a quarter-of-a-million illegals last year. Hundreds -- hundreds -- of those were OTMs. So this is a big concern and we need to get this [news] out in the open.

Just over the border in the failed narco-terror state of Mexico, we've seen the following ominous developments:

Apple is not tracking the location of your iPhone.It is tracking the location of you, for marketing departments and governments around the world.

2. Then why is everyone so concerned about this?

Providing mobile users with fast and accurate location information while preserving their security and privacy has raised some very complex technical issues which are hard to communicate in a soundbite. Users are confused, partly because the creators of this new technology(including Apple) have not provided enough education about these issues to date.Put simply, you’re too stupid to understand why we’re recording your location at all times, saving that location, and sharing the information with any marketer with enough bucks and any governmental entity with a subpoena.

3. Why is my iPhone logging my location?

The iPhone is not logging your location. Rather, it’s maintaining a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location, some of which may be located more than one hundred miles away from your iPhone, to help your iPhone rapidly and accurately calculate its location when requested.Using an on-board GPS and cell-tower triangulation algorithms would never, ever enter our minds. Seriously. We pinky-promise.

4. Is this crowd-sourced database stored on the iPhone?

The entire crowd-sourced database is too big to store on an iPhone, so we download an appropriate subset (cache) onto each iPhone. This cache is protected but not encrypted, and is backed up in iTunes whenever you back up your iPhone. The backup is encrypted or not, depending on the user settings in iTunes. The location data that researchers are seeing on the iPhone is not the past or present location of the iPhone, but rather the locations of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers surrounding the iPhone’s location, which can be more than one hundred miles away from the iPhone. We plan to cease backing up this cache in a software update coming soon.We were going to put the word soon in quote marks, but figured that would be too obvious. We can’t commit to a date for engineering, logistical, planning, technical reasons to be named later.

6. People have identified up to a year’s worth of location data being stored on the iPhone. Why does my iPhone need so much data in order to assist it in finding my location today?

The reason the iPhone stores so much data is a bug we uncovered and plan to fix shortly (see Software Update section below). We don’t think the iPhone needs to store more than seven days of this data.After seven days, we’ll make sure that data just goes to our data center.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

The Sticky Note Campaign is making deliveries in Georgia Supermarkets now. Super-Charged with Conservative ideals REAL Americans all over the country and even an awakened Democrat or two are now participating in this grass roots initiative. Its not a partisan issue either, no one can afford these rising prices at the gas pump or the grocery store.

I just realized that I need to order more FREE PRE-PRINTED Sticky notes from the Koch Brothers -- gotta go now.

Be sure take pictures of your STICKY NOTES, upload them to your Facebook, TAG all your friends in the pics and then also be sure to share them with the event page.

If Trump's sharp right turn and populist rhetoric were ratings ploys, they were -- like his thrice bankrupt casinos -- monumental failures.

"Celebrity Apprentice" viewers are the most Democratic in primetime TV.

...the audience for "Celebrity Apprentice" is among the most liberal in primetime television (see graphic above). Rather than add viewers, Trump foolishly appears to be driving them away...

Trump's ratings have clearly dropped. The fall-off has been especially pronounced over the last few weeks, a period that coincides with Trump's emphasis on Obama's birth certificate. "Something is definitely going on there," another media buyer told me. "He's dropped -- and that's a big f***ing dip." Given the liberal skew of Trump's viewership, that dip might not be surprising.

The Republicans flirting with Trump ought to remember his history:

• He was pro-choice a few years ago; now he's pro-life • He donated $50,000 to the malevolent Rahm Emanuel's mayoral campaign • He also donated to the ludicrous Marxists Chucky "Schmucky" Schumer and Anthony's Weiner in the last election cycle • Just a few years ago, he wanted George W. Bush impeached • He's done absolutely nothing to support the Tea Party over the last two years • And, despite virtually the entire House GOP's support for Paul Ryan's Budget plan, Chump portrays it as 'too extreme'

We don't need P.T. Barnum in the White House. We need a Constitutional conservative -- in the worst way. And Donald Chump ain't it.

From the looks of the roster of opt-outs to whom the White House has given special exemptions to ObamaCare, it appears to be a Who's Who of Groups Too Democrat To Snare.

Pardon me for sounding a bit self-serving and populist but if the buddies of the White House can Opt-Out of ObamaCare – You and I should be able to as well.

In September, Obamacare promoter and Democrat Rep. Ron Wyden applied for a special state waiver from the very federal mandate he advocated for everyone else.

Within a few weeks McDonald's Double Arch got it's own Obamacare waiver after informing federal regulators that it couldn't afford ObamaCare and would have to drop its affordable health insurance plan for nearly 30,000 restaurant workers unless it got a pass.

In early October, the Obama administration announced it had granted waivers not only to McDonald's, but also to several other firms and oh yeah - labor unions—Groups Too Democrat To Snare.

Just curious... Which party is the party of big corporations and special interest groups?

According to HHS, waivers depend on "a series of factors including whether or not a premium increase is large or if a significant number of enrollees would lose access to their current plan because the coverage would not be offered in the absence of a waiver."

Ummm...According to the Medicare Actuary – Millions and Millions of Seniors will lose access to their current plan. Does that mean Seniors can Opt Out?

For the second year in a row, Illinois ranks dead last when it comes to saving money to pay promised worker pensions -- and the hole is getting worse... According to a new report being issued this morning by the Pew Center on the States, Illinois through fiscal 2009 had set aside just 51% of the $126 billion it will need to pay retired workers their pensions.

...Above and beyond the $62 billion the state needs but doesn't have for pensions is another $44 billion it will need for promised retiree health care, Pew says. Illinois has set aside only .1% of that figure.

Yes, you read that right -- one tenth of one percent.

Normal citizens are forced to pay 7% or more into Social Security and their benefits are capped at about $30,000 annually. If they're lucky, they'll collect on most of that and some kind of very limited Medicare benefits, thanks to Obamacare's disastrous effects on seniors.

On the other hand, Illinois has thousands of retirees guaranteed six-figure salaries in retirement. 4,352 to be exact, a 20% increase over 2009. And the state's "new, improved" system limits payouts to "only" $86,000-a-year or roughly three times that of the typical private sector worker on Social Security.

The inmates truly are running the asylum in Illinois ("inmates" is a nice term for progressives).

Barack Obama's deal with the president of Mexico to allow Mexican trucks to carry their loads onto U.S. highways and roads is new evidence of his high-handed solo behavior that has become Standard Operating Procedure in the administration...

1. Obama's deal with President Felipe Calderon, announced on March 3, bypasses Congress, defies the wishes of the American people and looks like the action of a Third World dictator who thinks representative government is a nuisance and can be ignored. Congress made its wishes emphatically clear in 2007 when it voted to continue our ban on Mexican trucks. The House roll-call vote was 411 to 3, and the Senate's was 75 to 23.

2. Obama's deal is a direct attack on the jobs available to U.S. truck drivers because it helps big-business interests cut their costs by hiring cheaper Mexican drivers. Obama's deal is also an attack on small business (i.e., the owner-operated and independent truck drivers) who constitute the [vast] majority of U.S. trucks.

3. The claim that Obama's deal is reciprocal (i.e., U.S. trucks will be allowed to drive into Mexico) is so cynical that we can hardly believe anyone says it with a straight face. "South of the border down Mexico way" (in the words of the old popular song) is the most dangerous war zone in the world (more dangerous than Afghanistan or Libya), where U.S. truck drivers would become the targets of hijackings, theft, murder, kidnappings and even beheadings committed by the drug cartels.

4. Built into the Obama deal is the sneaky imposition of costs on both U.S. truck drivers and U.S. taxpayers. Each truck will be required to install an EOBR (electronic on-board recorder) costing $3,000 plus maintenance fees: U.S. drivers at their own expense and Mexican trucks as a gift from U.S. taxpayers paid out of the Highway Trust Fund. U.S. taxpayers are already paying $1,600 each for many Mexican trucks to replace their old mufflers with catalytic converters.

5. Obama's deal will make it easy for Mexican trucks to bring in loads of illegal aliens and illegal drugs. Border inspection will be a farce, maybe only one in 10 trucks inspected, perhaps merely one in 20.

Phyllis, dear, "illegal aliens" is so non-P.C. Liberals prefer the term "undocumented Democrats".

I suspect that the members of America's public sector unions will be nonplussed to discover that their platinum-plated benefits have all the likelihood of surviving as Tyrannosaurus Rex. Pew Research reports that these pensions, by and large, are headed right into the tarmac.

States are $1.26 trillion in the hole when it comes to their pension and retiree health obligations, according to a report released Tuesday...

...And taxpayers are ultimately on the hook for this shortfall, which soared 26% in one year...

...States are largely responsible for this predicament. As tax revenues plummeted, many skipped part or all of their annual retiree benefits contributions as they struggled to pay for education, Medicaid and other services.

States only contributed a total of 64% of the nearly $115 billion their actuaries recommended they put in their pension funds for that year, the center said. They now face a $660 billion gap in these accounts... Meanwhile states socked away a mere 36% of the recommended $47 billion in funding for their retiree health and other benefits. Even more concerning -- 19 states have saved nothing for these obligations, instead of paying the costs as they are incurred, the Pew Center said...

A commenter observes that ""Pennsylvania retired teachers receive 80% of their working salary and some receive free health care insurance for life. And, a 35 year 'pension/career' in teaching is the equivalent of about 28 years on the job in the private sector... There's not one company in the private sector, none, that allows you to retire with that exorbitant package - not one. No wonder states are flat broke. We're approaching the tipping point."

Approaching? I think we're well past it, folks. And to minimize the economic damage, we've got to contain the Statists and begin rolling back their insane fiscal policies.

The author of the original article, some crackpot named Roy Barnes, vilifies criticism of President Obama. He writes: "Being against a president over his policies is one thing, but being petty over everything Obama says and does reflects the mean-spiritedness of many in the conservative movement."

Because Barnes and the rest of the rabid Left never, ever mocked Emperor Chimpy McBushitlerburton in a mean-spirited way, right?

QOTD: "...there is an ongoing effort to destroy this woman. Forget anything about Sarah Palin other than she's a person. The left always talks to us about compassion. She's a human being. She has kids. She's got a family. Yeah, she sought public office, but there's no sense of proportion to any of this... I'm wracking my brain trying to think of a period of time with anybody else other than Nixon, where there has been anything like this... This is not the imagined fantasy from Hillary Clinton who said that the Monica Lewinsky claims were made up by "a vast right-wing conspiracy" to discredit Bill. This is a genuine, real, existing, right-in-front-of-our-eyes conspiracy. Now, Reagan was attacked by Republicans, too, and hard. People forget that he was an outsider who threatened the establishment GOP base. The Democrats on the left attacked him, too.

But Palin seems to be in a class of her own, and it just keeps ratcheting up. It just keeps becoming even more intense. The attacks on her daughters and her Down Syndrome child is beyond anything I've ever seen." --Rush Limbaugh

Monday, April 25, 2011

For those of you drones out there who still think, naively, that President Obama is trying to help out the little guy, may I present the following chart?

This is the average, retail national price of a gallon of gas over the past year.

So, Doug, you say -- the price of gas isn't President Obama's fault. It's the speculators. And the oil companies. And Sarah Palin.

Au contraire, mon frere.

The Environmental Protection Agency -- also known as the flat-Earth, no growth, taxpayer-funded, eco-Marxists (which is the term they prefer, I hear) -- is intentionally killing off domestic energy production. Presumably this makes good on at least one of President Obama's campaign promises -- in this case, that energy prices "will necessarily skyrocket."

In 2008 Shell bought the Chukchi Sea leases from the U.S. for $2 billion and then spent another $2 billion on a "pre-drill exploratory phase." Because of ice cover, even basic exploration tasks are difficult, expensive and limited to certain months of the year.

After three years of investment by Shell, the eco-Marxists at the EPA pulled the rug right out from under the beleaguered oil company for specious, ludicrous reasons ("The EPA’s appeals board ruled that Shell had not taken into consideration emissions from an ice-breaking vessel when calculating overall greenhouse gas emissions from the project").

We are the only country on the face of the Earth that restricts access to its own vast energy resources.

These suicidal policies represent an existential economic and national security threat.

And this is an intentional strategy on the part of President Obama.

I hate to use the I-word, but I truly feel that these policies -- opposed by the vast majority of Americans and unworthy of a "Commander-in-Chief" -- represent a crime of the highest order.

And this setback will cost Shell roughly $4 billion or more, which should do wonders for gas prices. Republicans better stand up to these bullying environmental nuts and de-fund the entire EPA until Obama is out of office.

Yes, I said it: Nuke the EPA from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

If I were to pick who is the biggest disaster in the Obama administration, starting with Geithner, Holder, Napolitano and including Obama himself, it would resemble one of those electronic horse racing games. They're all neck and neck, back and forth, until someone wins. And the winner varies randomly, depending upon the time of day.

Cornucopia

QOTD: "TrendingRight is kinda like a Larwyn's Linx that's always updated, like if Larwyn was a ruthlessly efficient automoton who spent vast amounts of computing power scouring the Internet for conservative news." --Me. Just now.